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Hipgnosis Songs Fund - buying Neil Young, Dylan, etc. etc.


wateroftyne
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Today it's been announced that Hipgnosis have bought all - or a significant part of - the publishing to both Neil Young ($150m) and Lindsey Buckingham's back-catalogues.

It's a free economy of course, but along with Bob Dylan, Jimmy Iovine, Stevie Nicks selling their stuff... I wonder where it will end...?

I find it slightly depressing.

Edited by wateroftyne
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Yeah they bought approximately 50% of some 1,180 Neil Young songs.  I can only guess that Neil wants to invest this money in some other interest - why else would he sell it?  It's cool that you can potentially own a part of his catalogue tho!  Music is surely something that will become more valuable over time (for the first 60 years after writing anyway)

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What exactly have Hipgnosis (BTW just in case anyone was wondering it's not the record sleeve designers, but a different company with the same name) bought? Is is just the publishing? The BBC article (the only one I have read so far) doesn't make it clear, they just say "songs", but there are lots of revenue streams from "songs" that could be bought and sold, so it would be useful if what was bought and what remains the property of previous owners, was made clear.

If it is just the publishing, it's my understanding that these rights aren't held in perpetuity, but will expire at some point after the composer/author's death (it used to 20 years is it still?). The artists who have done this recently are all getting on a bit, so there will come a point when this investment is no longer worth anything. I suppose the hope is that Hipgnosis will have recouped their ($150m) before then.

Edited by BigRedX
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Certainly a departure from designing Pink Floyd album covers, what would Roger Waters say?

I know it's an entirely different company, though I'm astounded they've chosen to them themselves like this - it's not like Hipgnosis isn't already a well known name in the music business.

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1 hour ago, geoham said:

Certainly a departure from designing Pink Floyd album covers, what would Roger Waters say?

I know it's an entirely different company, though I'm astounded they've chosen to them themselves like this - it's not like Hipgnosis isn't already a well known name in the music business.

I'd love Po & Storm's estate to sue their derrières off.

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4 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

Thanks!

That's interesting reading and although the exact details haven't been disclosed it appears from that article that NY has sold 50% of his writer's share and 50% of the Publishing share (of which he previously owned 100%). What this should mean is that both NY and Hipgnosis have to agree to any song licensing, and given NY's previous attitude to commercial exploitation of his works, especially for advertising, it might not initially be a brilliant deal for Hipgonsis.

Deals like this are a bit of a gamble for both parties. NY is expecting that he won't earn more than $300m (2 x the deal price since he still retains 50%) from performance royalties before his death, and Hipgnosis are expecting to earn far more than $150m before the copyright on the songs expires.

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I believe its all being done in the interests of a mathematical experiment to create the greatest single number in the universe that isn't equal to infinity.. 

This deal will create that as a result of the number of Spotify streams that it will actually take before Hipgnosis can recoup their $150 million outlay.  

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